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- Genre: Masters Thesis
Description
There has been extensive study of the target tracking problems in the recent years. Very little work has been done in the problem of continuous monitoring of all the mobile targets using the fewest number of mobile trackers, when the trajectories of all the targets are known in advance. Almost all the existing research discretized time (and/or space), or assume infinite tracker velocity. In this thesis, I consider the problem of covering (tracking) target nodes using a network of Unmanned Airborne Vehicles (UAV's) for the entire period of observation by adding the constraint of fixed velocity on the trackers and observing the targets in continuous time and space. I also show that the problem is NP-complete and provide algorithms for handling cases when targets are static and dynamic.
ContributorsVachhani, Harsh (Author) / Sen, Arunabha (Thesis advisor) / Saripalli, Srikanth (Committee member) / Shirazipour, Shahrzad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
In this thesis, an adaptive waveform selection technique for dynamic target tracking under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions is investigated. The approach is integrated with a track-before-detect (TBD) algorithm and uses delay-Doppler matched filter (MF) outputs as raw measurements without setting any threshold for extracting delay-Doppler estimates. The particle filter (PF) Bayesian sequential estimation approach is used with the TBD algorithm (PF-TBD) to estimate the dynamic target state. A waveform-agile TBD technique is proposed that integrates the PF-TBD with a waveform selection technique. The new approach predicts the waveform to transmit at the next time step by minimizing the predicted mean-squared error (MSE). As a result, the radar parameters are adaptively and optimally selected for superior performance. Based on previous work, this thesis highlights the applicability of the predicted covariance matrix to the lower SNR waveform-agile tracking problem. The adaptive waveform selection algorithm's MSE performance was compared against fixed waveforms using Monte Carlo simulations. It was found that the adaptive approach performed at least as well as the best fixed waveform when focusing on estimating only position or only velocity. When these estimates were weighted by different amounts, then the adaptive performance exceeded all fixed waveforms. This improvement in performance demonstrates the utility of the predicted covariance in waveform design, at low SNR conditions that are poorly handled with more traditional tracking algorithms.
ContributorsPiwowarski, Ryan (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Chakrabarti, Chaitali (Committee member) / Kovvali, Narayan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The tracking of multiple targets becomes more challenging in complex environments due to the additional degrees of nonlinearity in the measurement model. In urban terrain, for example, there are multiple reflection path measurements that need to be exploited since line-of-sight observations are not always available. Multiple target tracking in urban terrain environments is traditionally implemented using sequential Monte Carlo filtering algorithms and data association techniques. However, data association techniques can be computationally intensive and require very strict conditions for efficient performance. This thesis investigates the probability hypothesis density (PHD) method for tracking multiple targets in urban environments. The PHD is based on the theory of random finite sets and it is implemented using the particle filter. Unlike data association methods, it can be used to estimate the number of targets as well as their corresponding tracks. A modified maximum-likelihood version of the PHD (MPHD) is proposed to automatically and adaptively estimate the measurement types available at each time step. Specifically, the MPHD allows measurement-to-nonlinearity associations such that the best matched measurement can be used at each time step, resulting in improved radar coverage and scene visibility. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the MPHD in improving tracking performance, both for tracking multiple targets and targets in clutter.
ContributorsZhou, Meng (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Kovvali, Narayan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
In this thesis, an integrated waveform-agile multi-modal tracking-beforedetect sensing system is investigated and the performance is evaluated using an experimental platform. The sensing system of adapting asymmetric multi-modal sensing operation platforms using radio frequency (RF) radar and electro-optical (EO) sensors allows for integration of complementary information from different sensors. However, there are many challenges to overcome, including tracking low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) targets, waveform configurations that can optimize tracking performance and statistically dependent measurements. Address some of these challenges, a particle filter (PF) based recursive waveformagile track-before-detect (TBD) algorithm is developed to avoid information loss caused by conventional detection under low SNR environments. Furthermore, a waveform-agile selection technique is integrated into the PF-TBD to allow for adaptive waveform configurations. The embedded exponential family (EEF) approach is used to approximate distributions of parameters of dependent RF and EO measurements and to further improve target detection rate and tracking performance. The performance of the integrated algorithm is evaluated using real data from three experimental scenarios.
ContributorsLiu, Shubo (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Duman, Tolga (Committee member) / Kovvali, Narayan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Tracking targets in the presence of clutter is inevitable, and presents many challenges. Additionally, rapid, drastic changes in clutter density between different environments or scenarios can make it even more difficult for tracking algorithms to adapt. A novel approach to target tracking in such dynamic clutter environments is proposed using a particle filter (PF) integrated with Interacting Multiple Models (IMMs) to compensate and adapt to the transition between different clutter densities. This model was implemented for the case of a monostatic sensor tracking a single target moving with constant velocity along a two-dimensional trajectory, which crossed between regions of drastically different clutter densities. Multiple combinations of clutter density transitions were considered, using up to three different clutter densities. It was shown that the integrated IMM PF algorithm outperforms traditional approaches such as the PF in terms of tracking results and performance. The minimal additional computational expense of including the IMM more than warrants the benefits of having it supplement and amplify the advantages of the PF.
ContributorsDutson, Karl (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Kovvali, Narayan (Committee member) / Bliss, Daniel W (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The radar performance of detecting a target and estimating its parameters can deteriorate rapidly in the presence of high clutter. This is because radar measurements due to clutter returns can be falsely detected as if originating from the actual target. Various data association methods and multiple hypothesis filtering approaches have been considered to solve this problem. Such methods, however, can be computationally intensive for real time radar processing. This work proposes a new approach that is based on the unsupervised clustering of target and clutter detections before target tracking using particle filtering. In particular, Gaussian mixture modeling is first used to separate detections into two Gaussian distinct mixtures. Using eigenvector analysis, the eccentricity of the covariance matrices of the Gaussian mixtures are computed and compared to threshold values that are obtained a priori. The thresholding allows only target detections to be used for target tracking. Simulations demonstrate the performance of the new algorithm and compare it with using k-means for clustering instead of Gaussian mixture modeling.
ContributorsFreeman, Matthew Gregory (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Bliss, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Chakrabarti, Chaitali (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016